Vigil
by hydref05
Summary: Toby and Leo keep a late night vigil at Josh's bedside. Short missing scene fic from ITSOTG, which I recently rewatched (again!).


**Vigil  
**Synopsis: Late night visitors to Josh in ICU  
Characters: Josh, Leo and Toby  
Rating: PG  
Spoilers: Missing scene for 'In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen (Part 1)'  
Notes: I'm not entirely sure none family would be allowed in ICU, but that's why they call it fiction I guess.

* * *

Josh knew someone was sitting with him, he could feel their presence, he tried to open his eyes, but the effort was proving too much. When he'd gone to sleep his mother had there, but he knew this wasn't her. The pain was back, burning deep into his chest and his back, he gripped the bed cover to try and combat it, an act that drained away what little energy he had. The movement caught the attention of his visitor though and Josh heard him say, 'Hey, Kid'. Josh smiled to himself, Leo, only Leo ever called him Kid. With a renewed effort Josh finally managed to open his eyes. 

"How you doing?" Leo asked.

Josh's lips moved, but no sound came out of his mouth. He licked his lips and tried again. "'Kay."

Leo shook his head at that, how could he possibly be okay? Looking at Josh lying in ICU attached to a maze of wires and tubes, surrounded by monitors and drips, it was difficult to believe he would ever be okay again.

"Happened?" Josh asked in a voice barely above a whisper.

"You were shot," Leo reminded him.

"Yeah. When?"

"Just over a day ago, Monday night, it's early Wednesday morning now."

Josh wanted to ask how everyone else was, he wanted to ask how serious his injuries were, all he could manage though was, "The others?"

"Everyone else is fine, worried about you, but otherwise fine. Your mom's at your apartment, that's okay isn't it?"

"It's a mess," Josh whispered. "She'll nag."

Leo smiled, "More than likely. So how do you feel?" he asked.

"Dunno," Josh admitted. "Is it bad?" he asked.

Leo wasn't sure how to answer that, wasn't sure how much Josh could take. He was sure that Josh knew this was serious though, so he answered honestly. "It was, but the doctors say you'll be fine. The bullet damaged your lung and a major artery, but the surgeons repaired them. Now you just need to rest and recover."

"Hurts," Josh told him.

Leo looked at the morphine drip, "You get another dose of painkiller in a few seconds."

Josh nodded and flinched at the pain the movement caused. Leo took his hand and Josh squeezed it as the morphine rushed through him. Soon a blissfully pain free haze settled over Josh and he closed his eyes.

Leo let go of Josh's hand as the younger man's grip slackened. He glanced quickly at the monitors. Even though he could hear the rhythmic beeping he still needed to reassure himself that Josh was simply sleeping. He studied Josh's face, saw as the pain slowly disappeared, and he felt a new wave of anger toward the people who did this. He knew he should go home, but even though he hadn't slept since Sunday night, he wasn't tired. When he head the door open he looked away from Josh, expecting to see a nurse but was pleasantly surprised to see Toby.

"I thought you'd gone home?" Leo asked.

"I did, couldn't sleep." Which wasn't entirely true, Toby had been asleep, but his dreams had been full of images of Josh and blood. When the dreams had turned to nightmares and woken him, he'd got dressed and driven to the hospital because, irrational as it was, he had to see that Josh was still alright, was still breathing. "What about you?" he asked Leo.

"Didn't even try," Leo replied.

"How is he?"

"The doctors are pleased with his progress. He was awake a few minutes ago. He's groggy, confused, in pain," Leo shook his head. "I swear to God, Toby, I want to hunt these bastards down. I want to hunt them down and..." he trailed off and looked back at Josh.

Toby sat down and joined Leo in his vigil at Josh's bedside. He agreed wholeheartedly with Leo's sentiment there. If he had to spend the rest of their term doing it, he'd find a way to crush the people who had done this and to make sure they could never do it again.

END


End file.
